Holiday guests overstay their welcome after this many days

“Overstaying your welcome” as a guest begins after less than a week, according to new research.

A survey of 2,000 general population Americans looked at how long they’re happy to have a guest stay with them — and pinpointed this to be just six days.

Any longer than that, and the average respondent feels the guest is overstaying, with 33% even starting to drop hints that it’s time to go. A fifth will also not be so subtle, with 22% admitting they’ll outright tell a guest they’ve overstayed and need to leave.

But this does vary by who the guest is: respondents’ children are able to stay for 10 days, and parents have an eight-day grace period before it becomes an imposition.

But in-laws and other family members are only encouraged to stay for five days.

Commissioned by Avocado Green Mattress and conducted by Talker Research, the survey found — despite this — many respondents do love hosting, but space may be a key reason they aren’t okay with guests staying indefinitely.

For those celebrating the holidays, almost half (46%) want to be the house that everyone comes to for the festivities.

A quarter (24%) of holiday celebrators admit they even have a “friendly rivalry” with another member of their family, wanting to be the person hosting for the holidays — and 78% of these respondents believe they’re winning this “rivalry.”

But not all respondents have a guest set-up that makes it easy to host their loved ones.

“It’s wonderful to see that so many people want to host their loved ones for the holidays,” said Laura Scott, director of brand marketing at Avocado Green Mattress. “But that can be difficult when you have a smaller space — then it can feel like a guest is overstaying, even when they’re truly welcome in your home.

“It can be helpful to set expectations with a guest up front, on how long they’re planning to visit and where they’ll be sleeping, so everyone is comfortable with the arrangement.”

Though many want to be the “holiday host,” 61% said if they had a guest room (or a better guest room) they’d be even happier to host people overnight during the holidays.

Four in 10 respondents do not have a guest room. When these respondents have someone stay overnight, 56% said their guest sleeps on the couch — while 18% actually give up their own bed for their guest.

Of those with a guest room who are planning to host this holiday season, 65% will be making improvements to their guest room.

For these respondents, their list of improvements includes buying new bedding (46%), redecorating the guest room (45%) and personalizing it for their regular guests (39%).

Some are even going the extra mile, purchasing a new mattress (39%) or a new bed altogether (30%), to ensure their guests have the best experience.

While hosting can be a lot of work, over half (55%) of Americans surveyed believe the work that goes into it is absolutely worth it.

“Hosting can absolutely come with challenges,” said Scott. “It’s not always easy to have extra people in your space, or change your routine to accommodate — but there’s also something so joyous about having loved ones together under one roof, especially for the holidays.

“It’s great to try and make your guests feel at home when they’re staying overnight, and for those who do have a dedicated guest room, making sure guests have a comfortable bed and space to relax can go a long way in helping the holidays be a success.”

Survey methodology:

Talker Research surveyed 2,000 general population Americans; the survey was commissioned by Avocado Green Mattress and administered and conducted online by Talker Research between Oct. 9–13, 2025.

We are sourcing from a non-probability frame and the two main sources we use are:

• Traditional online access panels — where respondents opt-in to take part in online market research for an incentive
• Programmatic — where respondents are online and are given the option to take part in a survey to receive a virtual incentive usually related to the online activity they are engaging in

Those who did not fit the specified sample were terminated from the survey. As the survey is fielded, dynamic online sampling is used, adjusting targeting to achieve the quotas specified as part of the sampling plan.

Regardless of which sources a respondent came from, they were directed to an Online Survey, where the survey was conducted in English; a link to the questionnaire can be shared upon request. Respondents were awarded points for completing the survey. These points have a small cash-equivalent monetary value.

Cells are only reported on for analysis if they have a minimum of 80 respondents, and statistical significance is calculated at the 95% level. Data is not weighted, but quotas and other parameters are put in place to reach the desired sample.

Interviews are excluded from the final analysis if they failed quality-checking measures. This includes:

• Speeders: Respondents who complete the survey in a time that is quicker than one-third of the median length of interview are disqualified as speeders
• Open ends: All verbatim responses (full open-ended questions as well as other please specify options) are checked for inappropriate or irrelevant text
• Bots: Captcha is enabled on surveys, which allows the research team to identify and disqualify bots
• Duplicates: Survey software has “deduping” based on digital fingerprinting, which ensures nobody is allowed to take the survey more than once

It is worth noting that this survey was only available to individuals with internet access, and the results may not be generalizable to those without internet access.